's grandmother

is

, the niece of the founders of the Belarusian People's Republic

and

.

As a child, she was looked after

, knew

's closest friend

, worked in the New York office of Radio Svaboda.

Danchyk's great-grandmother is

, the younger sister of Anton and Ivan Lutskevich.

Danczyk was born in 1958 in New York.

His father,

, is Ukrainian, and his mother,

, is Belarusian.

Since childhood, Danchyk knew Belarusian and Ukrainian languages.

In 1981, he graduated from New York University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

When he was 16 years old, he got to the concert "Pesniarov" - the ensemble toured in America.

A year later, Danchyk recorded his first album, which became the first Belarusian CD in the USA.

In 1989, he visited Belarus, where he gave concerts.

He visited Belarus for the second time with concerts in 1996. In 1997, he announced that he was ending his musical career.

Photo gallery: Danchyku - 60. Photos from different years

Bogdan Andrusyshyn, an American with Belarusian-Ukrainian roots, has been living under the pseudonym Danchyk for most of his life.

His voice from across the ocean woke up even Soviet Belarusians.

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Danchik's main occupation was journalism.

Worked at Radio Svaboda from 1992 to 2021, since 2002 - deputy director of Belarusian Svaboda.

As a musician, he released 6 albums of Belarusian songs.

Now lives in New York.

Awarded the medal of 100 years of the BNR of the Council of the Belarusian People's Republic.

The hero of two documentary films "Danchik" (Belarusfilm - 1989, Belsat - 2015).

We have collected the most interesting statements of Danchyk from his programs, blogs, interview podcasts on Svaboda from different years.

"Her constant pride for her Belarusianness" - about mother Yulia Andrusyshina

Danchyk (Bogdan Andrusyshyn) and his mother Yulia on her 85th birthday, June 19, 2017

"I remember the story of how the family of my mother, who was twelve years old at the time, hurriedly left Minsk when the Soviets began to attack the city.

In the chaos and confusion, this young girl calmly removed the tablecloth from the dining table and sewed a backpack from it.

With him, she collected what she subconsciously considered at that young age to be the greatest family values: not dolls or any toys, but her favorite cat and albums with family photos.

It says a lot about her value system.

The cat escaped when the train in which they left was blown up by a mine, but the photographs have survived to this day.

Rescued more than half a century ago from the charred ruins of their Minsk home in 1944, these pictures came in handy for my mother, when she not so long ago published illustrated memoirs about her beloved extended family and previous generations, her no less beloved city of Minsk, and her constant pride in her Belarusianness," Danchik wrote about his mother's death in 2017.

"I came to the city that always sleeps" - about the difference between New York, Munich and Prague

At the beginning of 1990, Danchyk could be heard on the airwaves of Belarusian Freedom under the pseudonym Maksim Lukashevich.

In 2014, in the series "On the wave of freedom", Danchyk told how fate brought him to the Belarusian editorial office of Radio Svaboda in Munich:

"In order to get this job, I had to go to Munich for an interview... I really liked it there, because it felt like it was a journalistic institution, and I thought it would be interesting... I really liked New York, and it's clear - family, friends, a whole life in New York - I never thought I would end up in Europe.

Although not long before that, I went to a fortune teller, and she told me that my future was in Europe.

So it happened.

In February 1992, I came to Munich.

And was very, very unhappy!

I came from New York, the city that never sleeps, to the city that seemed to me to always sleep.

It is clear that the country is very beautiful, and the surroundings, and these mountains, and the Alps, but I simply did not like the way of life.

I didn't like that there is no service... I stand in a supermarket and wait - there is no courtesy, the kind that Americans have... Laughter and crying, because it seemed to me that I had arrived in some Soviet Union!...

2015 year.

Prague.

But I got used to it... Then they say: let's go to Prague... Ten years after the fall of communism, it was much easier for an American to live in Prague than in Munich.

I also like the Czechs more, and the lifestyle, and the city is beautiful, rare in the world.

The work itself interested me, and now, as I look at those years in Munich and compare - what was the work there then and what is it today - Munich eight years ago, it was the 14th century, compared to the Belarusian service of Radio Svaboda, as it is today. ", Danchik said in 2003.

"I was too honest."

Danchyk's stories that shocked conservative Belarus

In 2019, Svaboda's podcast series "Unknown Danchyk" was released - extremely candid conversations between Alena Radkevich and Danchyk, in which the singer shared his personal stories and the history of his family.

• He talked about his relationship with his French school teacher and explains why he forbade himself an artistic career.

• He explained why he did not fulfill his vow never to enter the church again in his life.

• He tells how much he can't stand collectivism and how he gets annoyed when he is called "Danchik".

• He tells what he had to go through to publicly confess his sexual orientation.

• He recalls how he received a fatal diagnosis, and in 1989 he came to Minsk with concerts, sure that he was terminally ill.

Here are some of his quotes from the podcast:

• The fact that I am gay, I have known since childhood.

• The patriarch of the Belarusian emigration, Anton Shukeloyt, was indignant: "We have never had anything like this!"

• The press, church, school, society, government bombarded you: "If you are homosexual, you are sick, a monster, a pervert."

• The driving force behind my lack of ambition was fear.

  "I never wanted to be famous"

• "In our family it was not customary to say I love you"

• "Being a first-generation immigrant is a bit schizophrenic"

• "I think like an American"

• "I had a "kitchen" Belarusian language"

• "At first, the family spoke Ukrainian, but then my mother basically started speaking only Belarusian"

• "How much the family suffered through Ivan and Anton Lutskevich!

  You see, they wanted a revolution!"

  - lamented their sister

"It's not about sex at all," it's about homophobia

In the office of Radio Svaboda

This is how Bohdan Andrusyshyn responded in his blog to a large number of insulting homophobic comments under the program dedicated to the problem of LGBT people in Belarus and the post-Soviet space:

"Among the main missions of our radio is the promotion of democratic values ​​and the fight against social intolerance by expanding factual information and ideas to reach mutual understanding.

With my blog and a call to stop systemic insults against members of the LGBT community, I am trying to at least get closer to this goal.

There should be dialogue, and let silence, fear and shame stop.

And the conversation is not about sex at all, but about the identity and dignity of the person.

The first largely depends on sexual orientation, and the second on the attitude of the wider society to this orientation.

In a civilized society, gays should have the same rights and freedoms to feel comfortable in their appearance, without fear of any consequences, as heterosexuals.

Unfortunately, this is not possible in today's Belarus.

In June, at the gay pride parade in Prague, I unexpectedly met one of my colleagues, the director of one of the Eastern European services of our radio.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Everything is very simple: I have two sons, and if it happened that one of them would be gay, I would like him to be happy."

"Men should take 50% responsibility for housework" - about raising the retirement age in Belarus

"I calculated all options from the point of view of gender equality.

Men live in Belarus for an average of 66.5 years, women for 78 years.

In this way, men receive a pension of 6.5 years, women - 23 years.

Three times longer!

To be gender fair, women should retire at 65, and men at 53 - then everyone will have 13 years of "deserved rest".

But then, I think, it's time to say goodbye to the concepts of "women's" and "men's" work.

Men should take 50% responsibility for housework.

That is, help with washing dishes, laundry, cooking dinners.

The penis does not interfere with these activities at all," Danchik wrote in the "100 Words" project in 2016.

"I always felt his closeness", - about his friend Levon Bartkevich

Danchyk and Leonid Bartkevich

"Lonya Bartkevich played a big role in my life, especially in my youth.

From the moment we met during the "Songs" tour in New York in the late 1970s, I always felt his closeness.

In the history of modern Belarusian music, Lonya had a unique double gift - he was a beautiful person and had such a wonderful voice.

He did a lot for me to come to Belarus for the first time in 1989.

He sent invitations, which was not easy to do at that time, and organized our life in Belarus.

With great enthusiasm, he helped organize our joint concerts and pushed me on stage even when I didn't really want to.

I will never forget the days they spent with Olga Korbut in an apartment on Komsomolskaya Street in Minsk.

For me, in a certain period of my life, he was a very close person.

This warmth of his will remain with me forever," Danchyk wrote on the occasion of Bartkevich's death in April 2021.

"They were in the same row as "BEATLES", "ROLLING STONES"" - about "Pesniarov" and Mulyavin

2011 year.

"For those who listened to rock music in the 1970s, Pesnyari was in the same row as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones... I was, of course, very shocked by the news that Mulyavin died... His merit is the most important thing is that he simply brought a Belarusian song to the international arena.

Even in New York, when they came - I still remember it very well, in 1977, I think - they performed on Broadway...

They then made a great impression on New York critics.

The sound was very original.

In general, when I first heard Pesnyarov, it was something peculiar... Wonderful voices, both Mulyavin and Bartkevich, and then these arrangements - they seemed very complicated, with different three- and four-part harmonies, many instruments, violins , cymbals... They were much more complicated than, say, even "Beatles".... Such stars never go out.

Even death cannot extinguish them," Danchik wrote in 2003.

About the Belarusian protest anthem

In June 2020, on the eve of the presidential elections, Danchyk spoke about what, in his opinion, was lacking in the Belarusian protest:

"The movement for civil rights, which is currently unfolding in Belarus, is missing one very important element - the song of this movement. Every significant movement of the last century had its own song. Music and song are extremely important to the human spirit to convey the aspirations of many people in a common voice.

Can one not be moved by the universal sentiments expressed in "Song of Freedom," a modern adaptation of "The Chorus of Jewish Slaves" from Verdi's Nabucco? Aren't the Belarusian people the same thoughts and aspirations today?

... Or the eternal hymn sung by black rights movements for decades - "We shall overcome."

Are the words expressed in this last stanza, are not the same words that Belarusians clearly express all over the country today?

Or take also the example of the defiant anthem of the gay rights movement "I am who I am":

These are just a few of the songs that have accompanied supporters of universal human rights throughout the ages.

There are many others...

I think Belarusians need their own song now more than ever.

Of course, it should be something unique, distinctly Belarusian, with a simple, accessible melody that would be easy to sing."

March 22, 2088.

Danchyk sings at an event for the 90th anniversary of the BNR in Prague.